Meet the Dean of UNC's New School of Civic Life
In January 2023, the University of North Carolina board of trustees voted unanimously to create a new School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL). The mission was to offer students a rich liberal arts education taught by professors across the ideological spectrum. The creation of SCiLL was framed as a reaction to progressive conformity in the academy. UNC Board Chair David Boliek and Vice Chair John Preyer told the Wall Street Journal that their goal was to end “political constraints on what can be taught in university classes.” Some critics, including Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, raised concerns that the creation of the school lacked sufficient input from the UNC administration or faculty. Last week, UNC announced that Jed Atkins, a professor of classical studies and director of Duke’s Civil Discourse Project, had been hired as SCiLL’s inaugural dean. RealClearEducation interviewed Atkins about his role leading the newest school at UNC and about the controversies surrounding SCiLL’s creation.
RCE: You are a classicist, philosopher, and political theorist. How did you get interested in civic thought and civil discourse?
Atkins: At Duke, I’ve taught courses on democratic institutions and core values, such as liberty and equality, in programs that fostered community among people who disagreed by engaging with outside speakers from across the political spectrum. It’s been wonderful to see that my students regularly include leaders of conservative and liberal campus groups. Through this experience, I became convinced that the best way to teach important political and moral topics is to expose students to a wide range of viewpoints and to build a classroom culture that enables students to disagree with one another in a spirit of intellectual friendship. Over the years, I have been encouraged in this work by an intellectually and politically diverse group of colleagues committed to the same type of education.
Why is civic thought and civil discourse important now?
Around 2015, I noticed that students were increasingly self-censoring and struggling to discuss topics such as Plato’s Republic, the American Founding, and the civil rights movement. Such subjects invite deep questions about liberty, equality, justice, the human condition, and the good political community. This enquiry is good for its own sake. But it also builds the capacity among students to deliberate well about important political questions with those who disagree. At a time in which America is polarizing faster than any other major democracy, we need classes that prepare students to have meaningful conversations across difference and to deliberate well about important political matters. The future of our democracy depends upon it.
You lead a nationally known Program at Duke, the Civil Discourse Project. Tell us about your work there.
The Civil Discourse Project (CDP) aims to create a free-speech culture that enables members of the Duke community to disagree better. We achieve this work through courses and public dialogues. Thanks to the generous support of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, we also have begun teaching faculty from other universities how to design courses promoting civil discourse. Attendees have diverse political perspectives and come from a wide range of educational institutions—Ivy League schools, state universities, religious schools, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. My team at Duke has also launched a Civic Life and Thought Initiative. We professors can sometimes forget how important residential life is for college students’ growth and development. In our “civil discourse dorm,” we connect the values of the classroom with conversations in the residence hall. Student leaders model charity, active listening, and intellectual humility to younger students as they lead discussions of weighty topics like the existence of God or the role of merit in a good society. Students and faculty collaborate on lectures and panel discussions to create conversations that otherwise wouldn’t happen at Duke.
How did you get interested in applying for this position to lead SCiLL?
As you know, Carolina and Duke are close, within 8 miles of one another. I’ve enjoyed collaborating in different capacities over the past four years with colleagues at UNC who have been busy building a wonderful program teaching students to have civil conversations across difference. We’ve shared speakers and ideas, and even linked up for faculty training. When it came time for UNC to launch this new School of Civic Life and Leadership, they reached out to me for feedback as they articulated their vision. As my team’s work at Duke has become more widely known, I’ve enjoyed comparing notes and consulting with faculty leaders from peer institutions, from Stanford to MIT, who are tackling the same set of challenges. I became convinced I wanted to focus on this work full-time. The SCiLL Dean position offered a compelling opportunity to do so while serving North Carolina, my adopted home state. I was deeply gratified when UNC’s faculty chose me for this job.
The Program for Public Discourse (SCiLL’s predecessor) and SCiLL have been somewhat controversial. Does this concern you?
It’s funny--a few years ago, a Duke colleague cautioned me about associating with UNC’s Program for Public Discourse (PPD) for fear of tarnishing our Duke program’s brand. (The PPD was the institutional forerunner to SCiLL.) When this same colleague learned that I had accepted the SCiLL position last week, he reached out to enthusiastically congratulate me. What changed? Thanks to the hard work of the PPD team, a significant portion of the local community has come to see the value of the program for fostering a much-needed capacity for public deliberation. This solid foundation provides a remarkable opportunity for civic education that benefits students of all beliefs and backgrounds. I think this demonstrates that the proof of the pudding really is in the eating, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on.
How would you answer critics who might be concerned that there’s a conservative political agenda behind this program, or that the intent is to indoctrinate rather than educate students?
I can’t speak for others, but I can speak for myself. I am in the business of education, not politics. The type of civic education to which I am committed invites participants to wrestle with big questions of civic and human flourishing beginning from our own very different, partial perspectives, with the view of refining these perspectives and so lifting us beyond the narrow political partisanships that have gridlocked our country. That said, certainly I understand the concern: legislation from a Republican-controlled legislature supported the creation of the school. This is not the first time that an initiative in state education involved legislation, and some of this legislation was initially contentious, including the legislation that created the current UNC state system. But origins are not destiny, and I can’t think of anything much less contentious than the idea that we should be providing students with a liberal arts education that prepares them for the weighty responsibilities of democratic citizenship.
Who are you cheering for in the ACC tournament?
Go Heels!
